


Mercy

by tealeaf523 (ConstantComment)



Series: HP Rarepairs [13]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstantComment/pseuds/tealeaf523
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"God have mercy on the man who doubts what he's sure of." -- Bruce Springsteen, "Tunnel of Love"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mercy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [linlawless](https://archiveofourown.org/users/linlawless/gifts).



> Difficult prompt! I liked how it turned out. Unbeta'd.

Draco Malfoy had been sure of many things, once. Muggles were lesser people. Mudbloods were worse. Blood-traitors... well, what's worse than worst? He had also known beyond a doubt that he was destined for greatness. That he _deserved_ greatness.  
  
However, Ginevra Weasley made him want to _earn_ it.  
  
"It's _Ginny_ , you fucker," she said not for the first time, wiping down the bar as he pretended to sneer at the actually rather delicious gin and tonic in his hands. He knew Ginny was sure that a bottle of liquor didn't have to be 100 Galleons to be any good.  
  
He was still sure that wine had to, though. If not twice as expensive.  
  
He couldn't give up all of his snobbery in one go, now could he?  
  
"You're muttering to yourself. Is that a side effect of the inbreeding?" Ginny added, throwing the ghastly dishrag over her shoulder and pulling a tumbler from a shelf. Was she pouring herself a drink? Gryffindors. Always blatantly breaking the rules. She took another down and moved toward the icebox.  
  
"I think it's more a side effect of the copious amounts of alcohol you've been forcing upon me."  
  
"Teetotaller."  
  
"Harpy."  
  
"D'you like your girl drink, then?"  
  
" _Girl_ drink?"  
  
"G &Ts, love." She poured the nice gin into both of the tumblers, and filled them up with tonic, placing a lime slice on the edge of his before snatching his watery gin away and replacing it with the new one! "Default womanly beverage."  
  
Draco was more distracted by her name-calling than the fact that she was stealing his drinks.  
  
"You called me 'love'," he said quietly.  
  
"Slip of the tongue. Don't let it get to your head," she replied and leaned on the bar. Her hair fell like water over her shoulder.  
  
He was staring.  
  
"These are on you, by the way," she added shaking her own tumbler so the ice clinked lazily against the glass.  
  
He sighed and pulled a Galleon from his robes. Their fingers brushed as he handed it over, and he watched her open the till with the ease of a practiced bartend.  
  
She smirked at him before asking, "Why are you always here?"  
  
"I'm being a drunkard, as you've never failed to remind me."  
  
"Until closing?"  
  
"That's what drunkards endeavour to do, isn't it?"  
  
Her laugh was unguarded, and Draco wondered whether that ease had grown recently or gradually, since he first walked into the Boar’s Head and demanded their best bourbon. Was it really almost a year ago? Draco drained his glass.  
  
“You’re here on a weekly basis, Malfoy,” she said after waving goodbye to two patrons he’d seen sitting by the window. “Don’t you have anywhere else to be?”  
  
What he’d meant to say is, ‘You’re the only one who gives a damn,’ but what came out was, “Do you still hate Potter for leaving?”  
  
Sudden, too casual.  
  
“Why? Are you hoping for rebound sex?” was the immediate response.  
  
He watched her back as she cleaned up for closing, noted the complete relaxation in the fall of her shoulders, how those Muggle trousers clung to her curves.  
  
He had once been sure he'd never fall for a Gryffindor, but God have mercy on the man who doubts what he's sure of.


End file.
